


Recharging Station

by kotka212



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, First time writer, Multi, Palpatine dies though, this is just R2D2 having a nice day out really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:21:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27999645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotka212/pseuds/kotka212
Summary: It's a few months after the war is over, and R2-D2 spends a warm afternoon wandering through the temple and checking up on his friends.Chapter One: Padmé and AnakinChapter Two: Cody and Obi-WanChapter Three: Rex, Ahsoka, and C-3PO
Relationships: C-3PO & R2-D2 (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 12
Kudos: 152





	1. C-3PO, Padmé, Anakin, and the babies.

**Part One: Anakin and Padmé**

The war was finally over. R2 had always known that Chancellor was no good for anyone, of course. It was something about the way his electrics always sparked up when Anakin came back from the Senate building. He didn't have taste receptors, so he didn't know how bitter feels to humans, but the way he felt around the Chancellor reminded him of the face Kenobi made when Anakin left the teabag in too long. He turned and remarked as much to C-3PO, who sniffed as well as he could without the benefit of nostrils.

“Preposterous! The fact is, R2-D2, you had no more idea than the rest of us what that horrible man had planned. And you certainly never expressed a distaste for the Chancellor to me-- in fact, I _specifically_ remember your saying he had a lovely office!”

R2 did his best to replicate a rude noise he’d overheard in the barracks. It didn’t seem to translate.

“Oh _dear_ ,” said 3PO, bending stiffly at the waist to get a closer look. “Is something wrong with your mechanics, my friend? First all that business with Master Skywalker nearly falling to the Dark, and now this! Really, you had best get to the mechanics before anything overheats!” That was the trouble with protocol droids, R2 thought. Six million forms of communication (counting dead languages) but they never seemed to get the _feeling_ behind what you were saying. He turned around and wheeled away, making quiet, disgruntled clicks. His friend would probably have a better time looking around the Temple gardens without him.

Anakin was standing alone by a window when R2 found him, arms clasped behind his back.

 _[Padmé?]_ he beeped, and Anakin turned to him. There was an odd, metallic bracelet around his wrist, one which R2 did not remember. Anakin had only experimented with jewelry once before, a ring that Padmé had given him and that he had refused to take off for months. Eventually he’d punched a battle droid, forgetting it was on his flesh hand, and broken a finger. R2 had assumed that was the end of that-- but humans were unpredictable, and Anakin would sometimes do the oddest things after he and his wife had been fighting. Perhaps this was some sort of apology for how he’d acted? If so, it seemed insufficient.

“She’s inside,” said Anakin. “Getting dressed.” R2 understood this ‘getting dressed’ business. If it was anything like the sort of ‘getting dressed’ his master did, she would probably need at least thirty minutes to sit in the ‘fresher on her data pad, and then probably twenty more to decide which tunic made her shoulders seem broadest. It would give him time to check whether Anakin was functioning properly. R2’s struts hissed as he lowered himself to a resting position, and after a moment Anakin sat down next to him.

Anakin looked pale, up close, and although R2 could see no injuries he didn’t think Anakin was all right, either. He looked like a droid in a Padawan’s shop class, deconstructed and then put back together slightly wrong. R2 extended his probe and curiously tapped the bracelet. It didn’t seem to have a way to open, but it was certainly too small to fit over Anakin’s hand.

 _[Restraining bolt?]_ he asked.

“Something like. It’s blocking me off from the Force.” So that was what R2 had noticed. Next time C-3PO tried to tell him droids couldn’t sense Force users, he’d bring this up. 

“Don’t worry,” Anakin continued. “I know I look like a walking corpse, but I’m lucky. Luckier than I deserve.” He was trying not to look at R2 directly, at first, but then he took a deep breath and turned to meet his visual processors. “I should never have believed him. Palpatine. I’m sorry.”

R2 considered this. _[You had better be,]_ he said at last. Then: _[So if the Jedi demoted you, who’s leading the 501st now? Are they hiring?]_ Anakin laughed, and for a moment he looked like his old self. R2 poked at the bracelet again. This time, he spotted a narrow seam, one he could probably crack given a few minutes and some quiet.

Anakin pulled his arm away. “It’s alright, R2,” he said. “It can come off any time. The healers are sure there’s no darkness left in me, and Obi-Wan has forgiven me for what I said. It’s just that I’m not sure I’m ready for it yet, not with… everything.” He nodded at Padmé’s door. “I’m going to keep it on until I forgive myself, I think.”

They had been sitting in comfortable silence for a few minutes when Padmé emerged. She did not look radiant. There was an odd green stain on her chest, and streaks of whatever it was almost all the way down her hemline, like whatever had caused the stain had started at her breasts and then slowly dripped all the way down her skirts. Her handmaiden followed behind her holding a basket of some kind. Anakin leapt to his feet ecstatically.

“Luke’s been fussy all night,” she said. “Won’t sleep, won’t eat, won’t quiet unless he’s being held all the time. Sabé and I have been taking it in shifts.” There was an unpleasant hiccuping noise, and everyone suddenly seemed very interested in the bundle of blankets she was holding. Sabé even set down her basket to investigate whatever it was.

 _[Is nobody going to show me?]_ he asked, and nobody answered. Whatever it was was too high up to see, and it was clear that nobody who spoke Binary was paying any attention. R2 rolled across the room to investigate the basket’s contents.

The basket was, at first, disappointing. Just more blankets and a colorful rubbery disc. Then something moved. R2 shifted uncertainly. Whatever it was grabbed the disc and brought it to its mouth. It had no teeth, but it attacked the thing like a rancor. Still, R2 considered, it was not very large, and the friendly squeaky noises it was making sounded a little like binary.

He poked the creature.

It reached out a chubby hand and grasped his arm. It had a very firm grasp for something so small. R2 stuck out another arm.

He did not expect the thing to cling on when he wheeled back. He certainly didn’t expect it to lean out of the basket so recklessly far, putting its center of gravity much too far forward, so that he either had to support its weight or let it tumble to the ground. Then it began to scream, loud and high like a ship’s alarm.

R2 screeched back, louder and higher than the baby, who stopped screaming and fell back into her pile of blankets. He could hear worried noises, Padmé and Anakin rushing over to see what was wrong, but the infant was waving her arms now, making a sound that was almost like laughter. R2 wheeled back from the basket and tried to look innocent.

“You know, I think Leia likes you,” Padmé told him, once she was satisfied nobody had really been hurt. And Leia was smiling, and nobody seemed angry, so R2 made a pleased noise and held the rubber disc up for her.

“Look,” said Anakin, kneeling beside them. “It’s Uncle R2. Can you say R2, Leia?”

Leia, who was about six months shy of her first words, drooled slightly.

“Uncle?” said Padmé, but R2 had already reached up and let her grab his arm again, and she had accepted the rubber disc, and that was clearly that.

 _[The other one will call me Uncle R2 as well,]_ he said. Even though, once he had gotten a good look at Luke, it was clear where the stain on Padmé’s dress came from.


	2. Cody and Obi-Wan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is even shorter than the last. Obi-Wan and Cody just did not want to talk.

Kenobi was harder to find than Anakin had been. This was almost always the case with him, as he was much quieter and caused a different sort of trouble than Anakin did. R2 had once suggested to R4 that her Jedi was the better behaved one, and that she should probably count herself lucky and not go on about the things he got up to. Since then, he had been forced to admit that Kenobi might actually be _worse_. At least with Anakin, trouble was predictable. There were Sith, and battle droids, and spies, but they were always there. According to R4, Kenobi would behave himself perfectly for several tendays, and then the second you aimed your visual processors anywhere else he’d be kidnapped by pirates, or something equally ridiculous that a full-grown Jedi ought to have been able to avoid. With this in mind, R2 took a circumspect route through the Room of a Thousand Fountains, careful to keep behind ferns as he approached along a neighboring path.

“I’m not implying you should leave the Jedi,” someone was saying as he approached. “I wouldn’t. I know what that kind of brotherhood means.”

Someone else tsked, and R2 knew that was Obi-Wan. “Then what are you saying?”

“Take a step back,” the first speaker said, clearly exasperated, and R2 peered through the leaves. He was pleased to see Cody was Obi-Wan’s companion: the Commander had always treated R2 with the respect he deserved, and he didn’t inflate Anakin’s ego like some of the 501st did with their hero worship.

“There’s still more to do. I’m not sure the Republic is stable once more.” Obi-Wan sounded worried. He had sounded worried for years, and R2 had heard too much of it. 

“There will always be more,” Cody said, and lifted Obi-Wan’s hand, held in both of his, to his chest. “You’ve spent years fighting to create a safe galaxy. Don’t you deserve to go out and live in it? Don’t I?”

Kenobi sighed, and he seemed to relax slightly. “Of course you do,” he said. 

“And you’re coming with me.” Cody was smiling. They were both smiling, just a little, like this was a new face for both of them to wear. Kenobi said nothing, which-- in R2’s experience-- meant reluctant agreement. Cody leaned forward, and for a moment Obi-Wan did too. Then he sat up straight again.

“You’re not nearly so sneaky as you think,” he said, and R2 whistled in annoyance. He was on a parallel path to theirs, so he pushed forward noisily through a line of bushes.

“Spying, are we?” asked Kenobi, but he didn’t look particularly upset.

_[No,]_ lied R2. To be entirely fair, he hadn’t meant to intrude on a moment like that. He had just come looking to say hello, and possibly to find out whether R4 would like to go transfer some data with him. He’d heard they needed droids for something interesting on the lower levels of the Temple. Cody was looking at him now, carefully blank-faced. Kenobi looked like he might laugh.

_[Having fun, are we?]_ he asked pointedly, and hoped it did not come off too much like he was deflecting.

“Oh yes, quite,” said Obi-Wan. He nudged Cody. Cody nodded. The smile was creeping back in on both of them.

_[I’ve been to see Anakin,]_ R2 announced. _[I met the babies.]_

“Yes? And what did you think of them?”

_[They scream louder than he does.]_

Cody snickered. “You like them, then?” 

_[Of course.]_ The children were fierce and strong, R2 could see that already. They would be great one day, as powerful in the Force as any of the Jedi that had fought in this war. He hoped they would never be asked to equal them on the battlefield.

_[You should go,]_ he beeped. R2 himself hadn’t seen very much of what the galaxy was really like. Sure, he’d traveled, but he’d only ever managed to see how the people lived at Senator Amidala’s side, when she could persuade her handmaidens it was a good idea to go to a market. 3PO had loved it, which meant Kenobi probably would too. _[I’ll keep an eye on everything here for you.]_

“We’ll leave you in charge, then,” said Cody. 

R2 shifted from strut to strut, trying not to embarrass himself in front of the Marshal Commander by looking too thrilled, and saluted sharply. They both stood there and looked at him for a moment. Using the hand on the opposite side to Obi-Wan, Cody pointed at R2, then, firmly, towards the door.

He wasn’t a protocol droid, he could take a hint. R2 turned with dignity and wheeled away through the ferns, leaving the organics to get up to their organic nonsense together. He was sure if he could find R4 she would have something to say to him, and then maybe they could go see about transferring data together.


	3. Ahsoka, Rex, and C-3PO again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R2-D2 finishes his nice day out.

Unlike his brother, Rex was pretty much always pleased to see R2. He and Ahsoka and a few of the other clones were sprawled on the floor of the barracks this time, in the sort of human social activity R2 had never really been able to join in on. He’d tried, once, had lifted himself up into the air with his rockets and landed on Ahsoka’s lap, but she’d made a noise like the wind had been knocked out of her and her shirt had smelled singed for weeks after. He tried to stay at the edges of this sort of thing now.

Rex was lying on his back on the floor with his legs propped up on the bed. His head was propped up on Kix’s knee. R2 hesitated for a moment: he was inherently suspicious of Kix, who had once updated one of his friends in the med-bay’s programming. The surgical unit, MD-3035, had been mostly the same after, but R2 had had to teach him all the ship’s gossip again. 

Keeping part of his awareness firmly on Kix, R2 wheeled forward and bumped into Rex’s shoulder. The captain turned his head lazily towards him.

_ [Hello, Captain.] _

Rex lifted his hand and patted R2’s side. “Hey, there.”

_ [I am pleased to see you safe.] _

“War’s over,” said Rex. “At least mostly. It’s a lot easier to be safe these days.” They had just come back from a mission, but not the kind he was remotely used to. There had been no droids, no weapons. Ahsoka had led the company to offer aid in the wake of a flood on Jedha, and while there had been death it had felt different. There had been hope, too. And it had felt good to create things, good to stand back after a hard day of work and see a home put back together, children in the windows, the beginnings of healing.

“It’s nice,” said Ahsoka, who was sitting on the top bunk with her legs dangling over the edge. She set her data pad to the side. “Rex’s gonna run out of room for marks on his armor, though. Lot more chances to save a life, these days.” R2 flashed his lights up at her happily.

Rex threw something up at her-- a sock, maybe-- and she dodged. “Ruining my reputation,” he said. “I’m pretty sure half the men still think they’re confirmed kills.”

“You’re a softy, vod’ika,” she said, “and I’m going to say it.”

Rex groaned, but he was smiling at her, and R2 settled down by Rex’s side. Neither Rex nor Ahsoka spoke, but the background hum of the others’ chatter was soothing. Ahsoka picked up her data pad and went back to her game. Rex shut his eyes and fell asleep with his head in Kix’s lap. R2 stayed powered up, just looking around. He wanted to make sure this afternoon was in his memory banks forever.

3PO was waiting for him by the recharging station that night. “ _ There _ you are!” he exclaimed. His hands were lifted, as they always were when he was worked up. R2 wondered whether they’d gone down at all since he had left him that morning in the market.

_ [Here I am,]  _ R2 agreed. He wondered whether they were meant to be arguing at the moment. The way he had left, that morning, might have been called ‘sulking’ if Anakin had done it. Then again, most things Anakin did could have been called sulking.  _ [Did you enjoy the gardens?] _

“Oh, yes.” 3PO lowered his hands stiffly. “I walked around-- I saw the most  _ amazing  _ flowers, and there were rather lovely ponds as well. And they keep the most colorful birds there now!”

As 3PO continued his chattering, R2 rolled forward and docked at his power cable. Clearly, his friend had had a perfectly nice day without him.

“And yet,” said C-3PO, connecting to his own power cable next to him, “I think I shall have to go back tomorrow.” 

How big could those gardens be? R2 wondered. Or perhaps 3PO didn’t move as quickly when he wasn’t afraid of being left behind by R2.

It was quiet. 3PO seemed to want an answer.  _ [Did you see everything?]  _ R2 asked.

“Oh, yes,” said C-3PO. “Only I was alone, and I think the gardens would be more beautiful with someone I love by my side.” 

_ [Then we will see them together,] _ said R2-D2.  _ [And we will have oil baths afterwards.]  _ After all, it was only fair that each of them choose an activity.


End file.
